Doug Barry

In a bid to ease some of the congestion problems at this year's Comic-Con in San Diego (or save children from a lifetime of having self-righteous scientists disprove the outlandish physics behind the exploits of their favorite superheroes) has banned strollers from its event rooms. Lazy toddlers everywhere lament!

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Vanity Fair's Julie Miller, who will be covering this year's Con from July 12-16, explained vividly in a short blog post that this stroller ban is probably a good thing, because the haunting image of dismayed children schelpped off to a giant nerd convention by an overwrought Superman in frayed, tensile spandex totally ruins the event.

One of the saddest sights at last year's Comic-Con-even sadder than middle-aged women in Princess Leia costumes strutting around the San Diego Convention Center like it was a speed-dating mixer, Captain Americas lugging worn Jansports full of free souvenirs, or grown men in Green Man costumes attempting to eat personal pizzas at 10 a.m. in Hall H (all seen with your blogger's own eyes)-were the crying babies carted around the costumed mayhem against their will.

Yeah, probably it's best if small children steer clear of such spectacle, and at the very least, the Comic-Con people have enough sense to keep young, overwhelmed kids out of situations that their developing brains just can't understand without a total, fist-waving, gut-screaming breakdown. That's more than we can say for the parents who let their kids swim with sharks. Then again, what if people include the strollers as part of very elaborate costumes, say, by turning those strollers into Batmobiles or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' awesome pizza van command center that every kid except me seemed to have growing up? Maybe that would bridge the generational gap between those middle-aged comic fans and the new future generation of people who will one day argue about what kind of metal Captain America's shield is made of (vibranium).